How FET ideas are changing our lives

Seven-year analysis of the Future and Emerging Technologies programme shows the projects it funded broke new ground and are on track to support potential breakthroughs

Source: Science|Business

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Eight out of ten EU-funded Future and Emerging Technologies’ (FET) projects generate radically new ideas, according to this study, suggesting Brussels is better at funding potentially breakthrough research than is commonly acknowledged.

FET was created to fund research into long-shot technologies, in areas including quantum computing, robotics and brain: machine interfaces.

The study, by researchers at the Austrian Institute of Technology and Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, looked at 224 FET projects completed in Framework Programme 7, between 2007 and 2014.

Among the signs of success the report highlights 4,063 publications, or an average of 18 per project, which the authors say, is a “quite high” scientific output.

FET projects triggered follow-up research in 86 per cent of cases and resulted in scientific awards in 29 per cent of cases.